barovianknightsfandomcom-20200213-history
Craig
Craig is a mercenary ranger from the Shaar, a broad and arid grassland in southern Faerûn. After a difficult and itinerant childhood, Craig established herself in the city of Shaarmid, where she spent any spare money and time that she had looking out for the vulnerable urchin children who crossed her path. She was mentored by Zoraida Auriade Exposita, a cleric and later Doomguide of Kelemvor, who taught her how to combat the undead and inducted her into the Most Solemn Order of the Silent Shroud. When Craig was twenty-two, Zoraida did not return from a routine visit to the monastery in Ormpetarr. Craig has been working her way across Faerûn in search of her ever since. Early Childhood Craig was found as an infant the edge of the Duskwood. A caravan of textile merchants got lost on the road north from Ormpur, and when they stopped to camp at the edge of the woods they found her lying naked on some rocks at the edge of the monster-inhabited forest. They took her to the orphanage in Derlusk, where she was fostered by a family of comfortably prosperous book merchants. Usually foundlings too young for the orphanage will become wards of the household that fosters them; they will be more than a servant but less than a child of the house. But at about age four, almost as soon as she was weaned and potty trained, Craig was given back to the orphanage. Even at the time Craig realised that this was unusual. She does not know under what circumstances the family decided to return her to the orphanage, but like most children she assumes that it was her fault. Craig learned this history through the orphanage’s meticulous records, which Craig would often sneak in to read at night. At this age she did not long much for the family of bookbinders—there was too much fear and shame there, and she forgot their name soon after leaving the orphanage—but she often thought about the caravan of merchants, and would try to find them among the weavers, tailors, and cloth vendors of the city. She had a wild hope that they would recognise and claim her, and no small part of her wanderlust was born from dreams of finding and joining them. Her idea of how merchant caravans worked were vague at best. Once in the orphanage, Craig struggled with behavioural issues—primarily hyperactivity, hyper-vigilance, aggression, and attachment disorder (she would often avoid or be fearful of staff members who were tasked with her care while attaching herself to staff members who were not her caregivers, like gardeners, or even random adults who visited). The orphanage staff routinely used magic to send the children to sleep in an orderly fashion, but being a Half-Elf Craig was immune to this and her sleep was never easy. At first she would seek out the orphanage staff, but struggled to accept any comfort they offered and often became even more anxious and wound up. Eventually they lost patience with her almost nightly visits and began returning her to her bed with stern orders to remain there until she slept. So Craig began sneaking out of the dormitories when she couldn’t sleep, exploring the nooks and crannies of first the orphanage and then the town. She met a gang of urchins and homeless folk who taught her how to steal, hide, brawl, and do basic sleight of hand. They didn’t particularly like her, but tolerated her for the food and blankets she would bring them. This also meant that she got even less sleep, as she was still woken at the same time as the other children, which exacerbated her other behavioural issues. When she wasn’t falling asleep during lessons, she was too tired to properly attend to them or lashing out and picking fights with the other children. When she was eight years old, a storm hit the Derlusk while Craig was out wandering. She got lost, but was too anxious to try and take shelter, so she spent the storm slipping through the streets and being blown into gutters and market stalls. When she finally found her way back to the orphanage it was far past the waking hour and she was soaked to the bone. The staff scolded and disciplined her thoroughly. That night, Craig ran away. She was convinced that she would be expelled and preferred to leave under her own power. As she didn’t fit in with the city urchins, Craig joined a loose group of other children who followed the merchants and other travellers moving between Derlusk, Ormpur, and Sheirtalar. Once she even went so far as Yallasch. For a few weeks or months each year she would return to the orphanage, where she was welcomed back with open, if weary, arms. At first Craig thought that she would finally be able to settle down, but later she returned to smuggle out skills and supplies to her less fortunate companions. When she was twelve and all the other children her age had been accepted into apprenticeships or household positions, the orphanage finally closed its doors to her as an inmate. Craig found herself relieved. She still dropped by to entertain the children and talk to the staff, and they still gave her food and supplies to share with her companions. Craig was more able to accept their kindness when she could clearly see its limit. Though the members of Craig’s band of urchins changed frequently, there were two steady companions with whom Craig grew particularly close: Kurshid, a girl about the same age as Craig who was a strong fighter and had a special connection to Tymora, the Halfling luck goddess; and Aeron, a boy two years older who had a knack for navigating and manipulating nature. Kurshid and Craig had an intense but tempestuous friendship, while Aeron was more steady and nurturing. Kurshid was a runaway from an abusive uncle in Ormpur, and if Aeron knew where he came from, he didn’t speak of it. Craig and her friends didn’t always fit in with other urchins: Craig because she could read and write, Kurshid because of her quick and violent tempers, and Aeron because of his intense and quiet nature. But they eventually found their niche looking after a gaggle of younger kids that the other urchins didn’t want to deal with. Once, soon after things had settled down, they were following a nobleman’s entourage when some of the servants approached their camp and offered them food. The children eagerly accepted but soon after eating became dazed and passed out. When they woke, the entourage and two of the youngest children were gone. They tried to track the entourage but never caught up before they disappeared into Ormpur. They got in the habit of keeping taster animals around to avoid similar situations. Adolescence When Craig was eleven, one of the merchants they frequently followed recruited them into being eyes and ears for his network of “friends,” which they figured to mean the Zhentarim. At first it was great: they provided him with small and unimportant trivia, and he gave them money and supplies. But then he introduced them to Eslyn, a girl of about seventeen, who he said would oversee their operation and find out if they were worth further recruitment. Eslyn was a capable thief, spy, and tactician, but her sense of humour was cruel at times. She had a kukri dagger that she was very proud of and would do tricks with. Many of the small children were enraptured, and Kurshid developed an almost painful crush on her, but Craig kept her distance. Soon after Eslyn joined, their numbers began to swell. It didn’t take long for Craig to find out that Eslyn was recruiting orphans from orphanages where they were otherwise settled. Craig took umbrage with this, but Kurshid and Aeron thought she was overreacting, and when she complained to their merchant friend he told her to fuck off and keep her head down. But then the dog that one of the younger kids had adopted went missing, and Craig found out that Eslyn had killed it after she had fought with the kid and the dog had growled at her. This was finally enough for the other children to sour on her, and Craig, Kurshid and Aeron took matters into their own hands. They tried to intimidate Eslyn into leaving, but at barely twelve and fourteen this was hardly effective. Things devolved into a fight and Eslyn pulled out her Kukri. The kids got it away from her and managed to tackle her to the ground and rain blows down on her. When the chaos stilled, Eslyn was dead. To this day no one is sure whether the blows or a the fall or something else entirely resulted in her death. They took her kukri and fled with the other children deeper into the Shaar. After facing many challenges and dangers, including a close call with a manticore, they eventually made their way to Shaarmid. Not all of the children survived the journey. Those who remained were able enough now that the group could be hired as guides, scouts, and guards for travellers in the grasslands around Shaarmid, and they gained a reputation for dependable work and reasonable prices. Once they were making money they were able to get most of the younger kids set up as apprentices or employed with reputable merchant houses. But there were always more children to help, and Craig threw herself into this work. When Craig was thirteen or so, Kurshid and Aeron left Shaarmid. A group of travelling Halflings were on their way back from the Chonalwood to their homes in Luiren and, after meeting Kurshid and learning of her connection to Tymora, invited her to join them and learn more about their Smiling Lady in the capital city of Beluir. Kurshid was elated at the opportunity, but didn’t agree until she had secured invitations for Aeron and Craig to join her. Aeron happily agreed, but Craig became defensive and argumentative, insisting that their work in Shaarmid was too urgent and important for her to ever consider leaving. Craig accused them of planning behind her back to leave her, that they knew she would be unable to go with them and had always intended to leave her behind. This was, of course, ridiculous, and Kurshid stormed off as Aeron tried more calmly to persuade Craig to join them. She refused. The rejection she had so long feared had finally arrived, and she had already accepted it. Craig and Kurshid managed to reconcile before they parted, and they each of the three took a part of Eslyn’s Kukri as a token. They promised to find each other again, one day. Craig remained in Shaarmid, taking care of the urchin children in and around the city, trying to shepherd them to safety and taking on jobs to get enough money to support them. Those who showed some interest or aptitude in music or the written word she sent on to the orphanage in Derlusk, where their skills could be developed or apprenticeships found. In such cases she accompanied the children as far as Kormul, then saw them on their way safely ensconced in a caravan. At the tail end of one such venture, Craig met Zoraida Auriade Exposita. As two unaffiliated and mostly human people in the City of Cults, the two stood out, and spent several dinners together in the local tavern. Zora was thirty-two at this time, eighteen years older than Craig, but they got on well. After Craig had seen off her latest charge, Zora offered to hire her as a guide and guard as she set out to explore the ruins of Lhesper. Craig eagerly agreed and they set off. The task did not go smoothly. They found the ruined city occupied by Yuan-ti in search of an ancient relic, and as Craig and Zora tried to retreat for reinforcements Zora fell through a floor into what was functionally an oubliette. She dislocated her hip in the fall, and though Craig was able to reset the joint Zora wasn’t able to heal herself. Zora told Craig that she was a Cleric on a quest to prove herself to her god, Kelemvor, and one of the conditions of the quest was that she not call upon him for aid. She had been told to begin her journey in Lhesper, and thought, given the ruined nature of the city, that she would find information, or perhaps a sign-post of some kind. She would not have hired Craig if she had known what they were about to walk into. Zora told Craig to leave her at tell the temple at Sheirlantar what had happened, but Craig refused. She did her best to provide for Zora as she healed, but eventually they were found and captured by the Yuan-ti and put to work on the excavation. The rule of the Yuan-ti included regular torture and human sacrifice, and the only food the prisoners were given scraps of bone and horsemeat from the Yuan-tis’ meals, made from the wild Lhesperans the Yuan-ti had herded into the ruins for the purpose. The prisoners made a kind of stew from these scraps, but Craig usually gave her food to the wounded or overlooked prisoners and kept little for herself. When Zora noticed she shared her food with Craig. With her medical knowledge, Zora was able to help or mercifully put to rest some of the suffering they met. During their captivity Craig and Zora discovered that the Yuan-ti were looking for a Sarrukh artifact: a religious relic of Set, the Defiler of the Dead and Lord of Carrion, in order to revive his worship in Faerûn and thus gain his favour and protection. Zora took this as a sign that Kelemvor had sent her here to stop this from happening. Meanwhile, Craig also found a hidden path that could be used to reach the herd of Lehsperans. A few of the prisoners knew spells to tame them long enough for the group to ride to Shaarmid. Craig began to put the plan to escape in motion, but Zora refused to leave before she had either destroyed or obtained the relic. Craig sent the other prisoners ahead while she and Zora went after the relic. It was an arduous struggle, but they were able to sneak into the excavations, uncover the hidden temple, defeat its defenses, and find the relic. But they could not destroy it. They fled the ruined city, coming across several guards and unfortunately rousing more of the Yuan-ti along the way. Zora’s face was badly cut, and Craig was stabbed in the abdomen, but they eventually made it to the salty lake and from there into the Lhespenbog. They were spent, and Craig was beginning to feel the effects of the blood loss and the poisoned blade, when they attracted the attention of a horde of undead. Craig insisted that Zora go on, and that she would buy her as much time as she could. But Zora refused and insisted on carrying Craig as far as she could before the horde had them surrounded. As she readied herself for a final stand, Kelemvor intervened and turned the horde long enough for them to escape. Zora took Craig to Kormul, then back to Shaarmid, and stayed with her for the weeks it took for her to heal. She lived with Craig and her foundlings in their hovel outside the city walls, and did everything she could to help and entertain the foundlings, which included making them apricot and almond tarts. When she finally did leave, she was honest about the probability that she would not be able to return to Shaarmid, and though she made it clear the option was open to her, did not ask that Craig leave with her for Ormpetarr. Craig was functionally illiterate at this time, so Zora gave her a set of prayer beads and said that if Craig ever needed help, she was to send the beads to her monastery and Zora would find her. Young Adulthood A year later Zora returned as a fully fledged Doomguide of Kelemvor. She had completed her wandering service and planned to establish a temple to Kelemvor in Shaarmid. She used her connections to help most of Craig’s foundlings into more established aid programs, and kept the others in the temple as acolytes until they either found other work or went to Ormpetarr to continue their studies. Craig tried to live in the city for a while, but she felt restless and uneasy spending so much time in such close quarters. Without foundlings depending upon her frequent return, however, she could take longer and more prestigious jobs, and with her connection to a local temple she became a respectable mercenary. The temple had a small but steady staff of people, not all of whom were dedicated to Kelemvor. Zora hired a dwarven woman named Thrinain Stoneheel to be their cook, and a Halruaan woman named Aethe Avhost as their housekeeper. Both were assisted in their duties by the acolytes of the temple, the most steady of which included Theris Thalasson, a human boy and younger son of one of the prominent families of the city; and T’iss’tess Vrael, a Yuan-ti pureblood girl who was found as an adolescent, abandoned and scarred, after the Yuan-ti left Lhesper. Zora was assisted in her work and instruction of the acolytes by Ealdfrith, an aging human man from Sheirlantar, the City of Tombs south of Sheirtalar. Whenever Craig returned from a job she and Zora would intrude on Thrinain’s kitchen to bake together. Craig never asked to learn the recipe for her favorite apricot and almost tarts, but Zora would make them for her on special occasions. Craig learned a little of Zora’s own background during this time. Like her, Zora had begun life as a foundling, in Uzurr, but was less fortunate in her orphanage placement than Craig. Uzurr and its orphanage were dedicated to Ilmater, the god of suffering, and the staff believed that they could best serve their charges by instilling them with his wisdom and raising them to be productive workers. It was a hard and cruel place, and the children were often hired out to various farms and businesses as cheap labour. Any mistreatment that was reported was seen as an opportunity to be closer to Ilmater and a cause for thanks. The staff offered little contact or affection, and encouraged a spirit of competition between the orphans by denying food and opportunities to the least productive children. This resulted in a violent culture of brawls and bullying that eroded any sense of community the orphans might otherwise have had between themselves. Zora escaped when she was eleven and tried to make her way to Sheirtalar, which she imagined as a shining metropolis. But the journey was full of challenges, and she soon exhausted what supplies had not been stolen by other urchins. By the time she made it to the outskirts of Sheirlantar she was too hungry exhausted to go on. She found what she thought was a pleasant looking park and collapsed beneath a tree. But, being in the outskirts of The Tomb City, the park was actually a graveyard, and when Zora awoke she was surrounded by undead. She took shelter in the tree branches through the night, and in the morning a woman in armour appeared and drove them away. Zora was awestruck by the woman, who explained that she was a Doomguide of Kelemvor and that if she wanted, there would be food and a nice bed at his temple in the city. Zora agreed to go, and the woman dropped her off there before continuing on her way. The staff of the temple treated Zora kindly as she recuperated, and even though adopting a child in this way was unusual for them, incorporated her gently into the rhythms of temple life. She was given odd jobs to do and productive outlets for her fits of rage and aggression as she processed all that she had been through. These fits lessened over time, and she found the calm certainty of Kelemvor and his temple soothing. Ealdfrith, a then-young monk working the kitchens, was from a large family and used to dealing with children, so he became her unofficial guardian. He was a gentle and empathetic man, more adept at soothing the living than ensuring the dead remained at rest. At the age of thirteen Zora officially joined the temple as an acolyte and immediately showed great promise both in her connection with Kelemvor and in her martial training. At the age of seventeen she went to study further in the monastery at Ormpetarr, and she became a fully dedicated cleric at the age of twenty-one. Zora didn’t suggest that Craig follow the ways of Kelemvor, but she did make all of her tools and expertise in dealing with the undead available to her. She gave Craig work to do around the temple when she was in the city between jobs and inducted Craig into the Most Sacred Order of the Silent Shroud so that she could check in on any graveyards she passed in her travels. Craig had a room at the temple that she swore was not hers, but no one else ever used. As the years passed she slowly started to accumulate some belongings and kept them there. When Zora had to leave the city she would take Craig with her if she could, but when that was impossible she always left a message for Craig telling her where she was going and for how long. They had a clear system that Craig could use to gauge when she should worry about Zora’s absence and what actions she should take in that case. A few times Craig had to follow these measures, and each time it payed off. Their relationship was not very personal, but it was incredibly intimate, and they built an unshakeable trust between them. When Craig was twenty-two, Zora went to Ormpetarr for the funeral of a previous Abess and invited Craig to join her. But Craig didn’t like the idea of being in such a large city for so long, or for such a formal occasion, so she decided to stay in Shaarmid. When Zora did not return, Craig began to worry. After a month and a panicked correspondence with the monastery had passed, Craig steeled herself, gathered her belongings, and told the temple staff she would not be back without Zora. Ealdfrith agreed he would let Craig know if Zora returned ahead of her. The monastery in Ormpetarr welcomed her, and the Abbott told her all they knew: that Zora had arrived for the ceremony and set out again without incident, but no one had seen her after that first day of travel. Craig began her search and has been criss-crossing Faerûn ever since. Current Events * Craig was hired to guard and scout for a Vistani caravan lead by Stanimir. He then asked her to continue guarding the group he sent into Barovia. Craig expects to get paid upon her return, one way or another. * Craig is learning to think of the group as more than her latest employers. * In the Village of Barovia Craig learned that a woman named Muriel ran an orphanage in Vallaki, and donated generously to her cause. She also refused to acquire one of Grandma Morgan's Patented Dream Pastries. * When Madam Eva offered to answer a question, Craig asked what she could do to help Zora. Madam Eva told her that someone in Barovia could help, but Craig will need to make an intelligent decision. There is a unique seer under Strahd. * At the party at Ravenloft, Craig asked Kava, a Dragonborn divination specialist and vampire spawn of Strahd, to help her find Zora. She gave Kava Zora's prayer beads, in the belief that she was the seer Madam Eva spoke of. * Craig learned of the Order of the Feather while staying at the Blue Water Inn and is anxious to become a wereraven and join their number. * During the Purge Strahd tore off Claire's left arm to discourage her from reinterring the bones of St. Markovia, but he succeeded and now has a prosthetic arm made of memory wood and bone. * The evening of Hans's inauguration, Craig attempted to rescue Arabelle from being abducted by a woman calling herself Leanne by throwing herself and the child to the ground from 150 feet in the air. Craig was killed by Leanne in the subsequent confrontation. * In the Soul Cycle Antechamber, Craig met Tarokka, who told her that Zora had entered Barovia shortly after leaving Ormpetarr four years ago. He returned Craig to life.